Game EXP: Platform 8 (PC)

 

Platform 8
Systems: Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
Release Date: May 31, 2024
Publisher: PLAYISM
Developer: KOTAKE CREATE
Time Spent: 76 Minutes
First Play Series on YouTube

In theory, this will be a short article because I've only played Platform 8 for 76 minutes, and I've seen most of the game, including two different (colored) credit sequences.

Platform 8 is an anomaly-spotting game from KOTAKE CREATES, the same developer behind The EXIT 8, and, with some experience in the liminal anomaly-spotting genre, I felt it was played against me as a player.  But in order to talk about how to play the game itself, we're going to have to jump right away into spoilers.  So, be warned.  

~SPOILERS~

In several of the anomaly-spotting games I've played, there's frequently been a mechanic that tells the game you've seen an anomaly so you can proceed safely.  In The EXIT 8, if you spot an anomaly, you turn around and walk the opposite direction.  In The 18th Attic, you have to take a picture of the anomaly.  In Room 713, if you spot an anomaly, you take the hallway to the right, or the left if you don't spot anything.  In Platform 8, the mechanic is almost simplisticly nuanced to be overlooked or misinterpreted, potentially making the player feel that they're playing the game incorrectly.  Maybe that's a feature?  Unlike the list of rules you have to follow in The EXIT 8, the only direction that's given to the player is a small sign on both the front and back doors of the metro train you're riding in that simply reads, "Please check electric signs."

The direction is simple enough, but only if you register it as a sign put there by the developers to tell the players what to do when they spot an anomaly.  You'd be forgiven if, like me, you thought maybe that's a perfectly normal sign to find in a Japanese subway car, directing the passenger to look at what the sign above the door says regarding which stop is coming up next.  But no.  The key to progressing in Platform 8 requires the player to take into account two main facts.  The first is to look to the digital sign above the door for direction.  The second is that passing from one car to the next does not immediately count as progressing through the game, and progression only happens after you've seen an anomaly.

Anomalies in this game also work differently than they do in The EXIT 8 or other anomaly-spotting games.  Platform 8 feels like it forces the player to witness anomalies before you can continue.  You might pass through the double doors into the next car, and the lights flicker, and the door at the other end begins opening and closing on its own.  As you approach, the door closes and stops.  That's it.  You saw an anomaly and can continue.  You might pass into the next two cars without seeing anything.  Then, in the following car, you see the flickering image of a woman standing.  Above the doors, the electric sign flashes in red text: "Do Not Look Away."  If you follow the directions of the sign, you're allowed to proceed to the next car; otherwise, you run the risk of being "caught" or "killed" and starting over from the beginning.

Of all of the anomalies I saw in Platform 8, I didn't come across any that were as obscure as ones in The EXIT 8, like the face in the ceiling tiles or a poster slowly growing in size.  The developers want you to see the multitude of bloody handprints covering the windows or the little girl who writes "Find Me" on the ground and prevents the door to the next car from opening until after you've found her.  The game is having fun with the anomalies as opposed to making the player feel frustrated when you pass from Hallway 7 back down to Hallway 0.  That's something that I greatly appreciate because that tells me that the developer respects my time as a player without padding the hell out of their game.  It also shows evolution in a developer, not rehashing the exact same formula and mechanics in a different setting.  I did go into Platform 8 expecting another The EXIT 8 set in a series of infinitely connected subway cars, but what I played was so much better.

I enjoyed the anomalies and was creeped out by several of them as well.  I came across one anomaly multiple times because I couldn't figure out how to get past it, but I never felt the frustration of being sent back to the beginning of the subway terminal.  I wanted to see the different anomalies, not just because they were how you progressed, but because they felt unique, and odd, and kind of absurd.  Yes, having a nearly faceless creature make noises at you is unnerving; seeing a giant hand pass through an open subway door and pad around for a few seconds is just bizarre.  That's what makes Platform 8 so much fun to play.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
You Hold Your Power As Your Fears